Gianni’s “Zucchini Mint Oven-Baked Frittata”

ready for the oven

pre-bake side view

This is an easy-to-prepare dish that will serve 4-6 people; it largely consists of well-drained grated zucchini mixed with some salt to encourage the water removal. Do NOT skip the draining step or you will end up with a soggy mess. Removing a lot of the water content means you can use up more zucchini than you thought! The corn meal at the bottom and on top provide a sort of ad-hoc crust of sorts. I suppose bread crumbs can also be used instead.

12-15 hours before (you can prep this the evening before for lunch the next day), grate 6 smallish (c. 7 ” long) fresh zucchini using a cheese grater. The larger the zuke, the more water and seeds, and less flavour, so pick them smallish.

Layer the results in a colander. As you layer, sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon seal salt. You should end up with about 4 or 5 layers. Note that you should not have to add any more salt to this dish after this.

Place the colander into a very large bowl. Then find a small plate that will fit right on top of the grated zucchini inside the colander. Place a weight on top (about 4 lbs)– you can rest a larger bowl full of water as a weight.

This will immediately begin to remove some of the excess water from the zucchini.

Place in refrigerator as is.

After about 3 hours, revisit the bowl and remove any water that emerged, and also remove the weight and stir the salted zucchini mixture around with a fork. Place the weight back on and return the whole thing to the refrigerator.

Repeat this after 6 hours and again when you’re ready to prepare the dish. You do not want the colander’s rounded bottom to be in contact with the zucchini water, of course.